Page 52 of Found By You
He turned to me. “You okay?”
Another gunshot.
This time McCrae grabbed me and pulled us both down.
The sound of the gunshot had triggered something—a flash of memory so vivid it made me gasp. I clutched at McCrae’s arm, my fingernails digging into his skin.
“Sky? What is it?” His voice seemed to come from far away.
“I remember,” I whispered, my body beginning to tremble. “I remember hearing a gunshot. Just like that. And then …” I looked up at him, horror washing through me as the memory crystallized. “I saw someone killed. Right in front of me.”
McCrae looked around, scanning for anyone. His arms tightened around me.
My knees threatened to give way.
He began walking toward the trail. “We have to get out of here.”
I walked with him, but he dragged me along.
“Who did you see killed?”
I shook my head, tears burning my eyes as frustration and fear tangled inside me. “I don’t know. I can’t see their face. Just … blood. So much blood.” My voice broke. “And someone telling me to run.”
Memories continued to flash through my mind, but they were disconnected, terrifying glimpses of a nightmare I had lived. Running through trees, falling, a man’s voice shouting behind me, the glint of a silver bracelet with blue stones catching the sunlight as I scrambled up a rock face.
“They were coming after me next,” I choked out, clinging to McCrae as the world seemed to tilt beneath my feet. “I was running for my life.”
McCrae held me, but continued to walk quickly. “It’s okay.”
I walked as best I could, while being assaulted with more flashes of information.
We got back to the police cruiser and he opened the door.
I climbed inside.
He got in, then helped me buckle.
Tears poured down my cheeks as more pain burned through me. “I need to remember all of it.”
McCrae started the cruiser, then peeled out. “We have to get out of here first.”
Chapter 25
McCrae
Sky was asleep.
I drove back to Refuge Falls trying to be quiet and ignore the tension in my neck and shoulders.
We’d gone over everything that had happened, everything that she remembered, but nothing new surfaced.
So I drove, the road stretching before me and resisted the urge to turn down the temperature in the vehicle. I wanted her to sleep, even if I was too warm for my own liking.
As a cop, I’d seen my share of violent crimes, but something about Sky’s terror felt more personal than any case I’d worked. My protective instincts were in overdrive, scanning each passing car, checking the rearview mirror constantly for any sign that we were being followed.
My knuckles were white on the steering wheel as I navigated the curves of the mountain road. Something twisted in my chest; a feeling both painful and sweet. This woman had crashed into my life just days ago, and already I couldn’t imagine her not being in it. The thought of someone hurting her made rage simmer beneath my skin, hot and dangerous.
Who had been shooting in the canyon?
